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UK Business lags in open source adoption

The rate of open source adoption in the UK lags behind other Western countries, a recent report has found. Research by Forrester Research shows the UK is fifth in the league table for the number of businesses that have adopted open source software. Only 15 per cent of UK businesses say they use open source in their business. France leads the table with 24 per cent, followed by Germany at 21 per cent and Canada and the US at 17 per cent.

The UK is better at evaluating open source software though, matching the US and Germany with 5 per cent. In the next 12 months, another 6 per cent of UK businesses say they plan to evaluate open source software, with France leading (11 per cent) followed by Germany (8 per cent).

Forrester also found the UK has a high proportion of businesses who had no interest in open source. The survey showed 36 per cent of businesses had no interest in open source technology tying with Canada. Germany had the lowest percentage of "no interest", at 28 per cent.

Forrester also surveyed what issues were important to open source adopting companies. In Europe, availability of support topped the list, followed by security and then cost of ownership. For North America, security came top of the list followed by support and cost. Despite this, Forrester believes that lowers costs are the main driver for open source adoption.